Quotations and Verbs of Attribution

One important aspect of letting your reader know that you have borrowed information from someone else is to use a verb of attribution. These verbs signal to the reader that the information is not yours.

For example if you wish to summarize what someone else has said on a particular subject you would state some like this:

According to the Mr. Jones, ice melts at a different rate in space then it does on earth.

The word, “according,” in this example is the verb of attribution. For a more detailed explanation and a list of examples use an internet search engine to search for “verbs of attribution.”

To learn more about using quotations, see “Annoying Ways People Use Quotations” by K. D. Stedman. 2010. Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 2. Edited by Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky. (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/books/writingspaces2/stedman–annoying-ways.pdf